Trumpcard (Official US Government Website)
trumpcard.govWorth noting the eagle animation at the bottom of the page is powered by several hundred requests for individual images.
As the animation loops it uses the same set of images over again. But as they all have a Cache-Control header with a value of "public, max-age=0, must-revalidate" the browser makes another request for every one of the images, every loop of the animation. It results in transfer of something of the order of 0.6MB/sec, with no end.
How do we know the frames aren't generated and streamed on-the-fly from mocap on a real live eagle?
Can I reuse the eagle animation on my own website, using trumpcard.gov to serve the images? A PoC would help.
MAGA - Make animations great again
And it's clearly AI-generated. As if one couldn't find a video of a bald eagle.
You can buy Austrian citizenship for ~5M EUR. Cyprus and Malta offered similar schemes at much lower prices until recently. Italy incentivizes people to move their tax residence there by letting them pay a 200k EUR lump sum tax annually instead of the standard progressive rate. I don't really see why we shouldn't have programs like this if there is vetting, but I'm also curious under which US laws this can be justified. Who would have standing to contest this even if it wasn't legal?
PS:
Under 50 USC §3508, the CIA director or the Attorney General can bring in up to 100 aliens and their family per year for permanent residence without regard to any admissibility requirements. Perhaps to maximize revenue these spots can be auctioned off at a premium.
Why should we have programs that specifically allow wealthy people to cut the line?
Because this program generates $1-5mm of revenue per person in addition to whatever spending and investment that person brings to the country.
It's perhaps "unfair" but it's also extremely pragmatic.
There already was such a system with more concrete requirements. It is called the EB5 visa and has a path to green card. What does this new method bring to the table?
It lacked Trump's face and branding.
And where is this money going?
> I don't really see why we shouldn't have programs like this if there is vetting
We should, but the program shouldn't be named after a current president. Note that it's an official .gov site, not a .com site.
Also, the payment should of course go to the Treasury, not to Trump or his party.
Same president that had to have his signature on the government issued Covid relief checks.
The payments are not going to Trump, personally. They're probably not going to the government, either; I bet this becomes like the EB-5 investor visa, where you make certain kinds of investments within the US. I admit that the text on the website doesn't make this clear, though.
Text explicitly calls it "donation". By definition that is not an investment.
Yeah, if you peel off Trump's name, the insane branding, and the fact that this seems to have been implemented completely extra-legally, I don't hate it.
The "extra-legally" part is not at all clear. When this goes to court (and I'm sure it will), the administration's argument will probably go something like this: Congress has authorized the administration to issue visas to people of "exceptional ability in business" -- see 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2), for example. However, Congress did not specify how, exactly, the executive will ascertain that ability. The Trump administration believes that making a one million dollar investment in the U.S. demonstrates evidence of business ability, and is using this as a factor for issuing and prioritizing visas.
The EB5 visa, by comparison, has much more clear requirements. It is not sure if this intended as a backdoor to EB5 or a replacement.
The $5 million option gives you privileges even better than a US citizen since you do not pay taxes on foreign income while being a US resident. They should make it an annual fee.
9 months residency. They seem like very different products to me.
Technically, these guys aren’t residents since they’re only allowed to stay 270 days a year. Not sure what the deal is though.
Suppose you can stack them. Stay on $1M Gold by default then pop on the tax-free booster ahead of a major liquidity event.
Normally, >6 months per year is the definition of residency. Any other country will consider these people US-resident.
Yyyyyuck. I don’t even care about the program specifics but the aesthetic is so tacky.
"If approved, an individual must make a gift of $1 million, which has been determined to provide sufficient evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States."
So much winning... Seriously, what a joke.
I think trumpcard.gov is legit: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/trump-gold-card-vis... despite the website's parody nature.
This kind of thing is not new in the US. Check out the EB-5 investor visa[1], which has been around for decades and offers a similar investment-for-visa arrangement.
This is new. The president's face is on it. That alone should scream, "Something's very much not right!"
The permanent residency card they issue won't look like that. It's an ID, and will have your photo and other identifying information on it.
I believe that's truly beside the point. The marketing is based on the name and tastes (gold, nationalistic imagery) of the current president.
It sounds like the objection you're making is to the website and not the program. Do you think it's always inappropriate for executive branch websites to reflect the style of the person in office? I can understand the push for a more neutral style, but the level of shock-and-horror for something the next administration could easily redesign seems.. excessive?
"So what if Adolf is putting banners of his face up everywhere, the next admin can just take them down!"
That’s part of the law.
If we want a $5m visa then propose a law. Trump by himself doesn’t make laws. Bonus for a law: it keeps the policy going after this administration.
When this goes to court (and I'm sure it will), the administration's argument will probably go something like this: Congress has authorized the administration to issue visas to people of "exceptional ability in business" -- see 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2), for example. However, Congress did not specify how, exactly, the executive will ascertain that ability. The Trump administration believes that making a one million dollar investment in the U.S. demonstrates evidence of business ability, and is using this as a factor for issuing and prioritizing visas.
Come, come, my good sir! We all know that none of this matters at all, because if appealed up to the Supreme Court, they always rule in favor of President Trump. With all due respect, that's what matters in the case of President Trump, the Supreme Court will let him do anything. It doesn't matter what thin veneer of law is applied.
every day the US gets a little stupider. I look forward to when this is all over
I remember watching the movie Idiocracy and laughing, thinking something like that could never happen to us. I can’t watch it anymore because it’s too close to reality
This is real. Here's the executive order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/the-...
How is this not illegal?
The Burrito Supreme Court said that they and no other are the sole arbiter of what constitutes an "official act" by The President. And, that he is immune from prosecution for "official acts". Congress has simultaneously abdicated lawmaking and has decided to let the president make policy via executive orders. I think most people have forgotten E.O.s are merely directives to the executive branch departments about how to implement the laws congress passes. Or, at least they were. Now apparently they're royal decrees.
It’s certainly illegal. I believe the law allows administrative fees, etc to cover costs. It doesn’t authorize fees as a source of income.
But who would have standing to challenge someone else’s visa in court? Maybe existing people trying to get a green card? Or other immigration rights activists?
If the (Republican) president does it, it's not illegal.
You cant be arrested for white collar crime in America. Getting charged with a crime is for poor people only
When the Department of Justice has been taken over by sycophants and the Supreme Court has surrendered, nothing is illegal for Trump.
s/Trump/Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho/g
I used many words earlier to express just this. If only I were so elegant and concise.
Except Camacho was actually trying to make things better.
I feel embarrassed for the U.S.
I... what? Guys I think .gov got hacked. Cause the alternative is we are on the weird timeline. Can someone confirm we are not on the weird timeline?
Satire has been defeated by reality once again.
I don't see any goatees.
I misread this as ‘goatee’. Both work.
The books still say "Berenstain Bears" so yeah, it's the weird timeline.
This is some Baudrillardian meta-humor.
This is the weird and bad timeline.
Why is this flagged?
The AI chicken-headed eagle at the bottom is a new all-time low in web design.
Ok to be fair the eagle looks just as confused and distressed to be there as the rest of us
Looks like the eagle is hundreds of PNG files on a javascript timer, and it's dropping frames.
Yes, if you haven't scrolled to the bottom I highly recommend it.
Why call it the Trump card? Regardless of what side you are on, this country is bigger than one man. This branding seems flippant and unserious.
Nothing about this administration is serious.
Oh, it's deadly serious. It sounds like you've never dealt with a true narcissist.
Hello, time traveler from 2010
A time traveler appearing from 2010 to today would be a hilarious premise for an absurdist TV show.
> Regardless of what side you are on, this country is bigger than one man.
Not anymore. It is now precisely the size, shape and texture of one man's ego.
> This branding seems flippant and unserious.
A groyper script kiddie named "Big Balls" had root access to the government's entire data infrastructure and just deleted shit at will, Trump's tariff policies were written by Grok using imaginary math, the head of the CDC doesn't think germs are real, the DOJ says Epstein never had a client list and Trump is definitely not a pedophile, the head of American intelligence is a Putin apologist, the Secretary of Defense is a lunatic podcaster trying to purge the military of "woke" and Trump is so much more rotten cabbage than man that he has to appear on tv by GenAI just so people still think he's a functioning human being. And he's definitely a pedophile.
We passed "flippant and unserious" miles and miles back. Can't even see it in the rear view mirror anymore.
Well he's gonna rename the USA to the UST, so then the Trump Gold Card makes sense right!?
Kind of incredible how fragile the scaffolding of American ideals was, in retrospect.
The last eight months represent an unabated march to the most idiotic satirical version imaginable. No guardrails provided even the slightest of sanity or introspection, much less resistance.
And we still have a little over three years to go.
All this because eggs were expensive and a black woman in the White House was unthinkable.
> All this because eggs were expensive and a black woman in the White House was unthinkable.
Well, that and decades of propaganda.
This has been going on for 10 years. I'm actually surprised it has withstood as much as it did. As they say, these things tend to move slowly, and then all at once.
The main problems seems to be that in order to stop these things, you have to recognize them well ahead of when the metastasize (what's happening now). We had several obvious opportunities where the call was easy, and we couldn't make the right call every time.
The first was in 2016 when Trump revealed his abject racism and sexism, two qualities that are necessarily required for a fascist movement. If we had rejected him on the basis that he sexually assaulted women, which we knew in 2016 before the first election, we could have averted this whole disaster.
Then we had another opportunity in 2020, when he had organized an insurrection against his own government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. At that time, we could have arrested him, convicted him, and also impeached him, barring him from office forever. If we had done that, we could again have averted this whole disaster.
Then we had a THIRD opportunity in 2024. I don't need to go over that recent history, but it suffices to say at that time we knew he was a racist, sexist, insurrectionist and we STILL voted him into power.
So I don't think the system was all that fragile. It's just, it can't bear the load of so much stupidity and self sabotage. No matter how robust the system it can't survive if you just invite the vampires in the front door!
Don't fret too much. This has been in the making since at least [1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). Nixon moved it forward, but found enough conscience or fear to give in. Ford's pardon and the DoJ's failure to prosecute rounding out the idea of not actually holding our leaders materially accountable. Then Reagan comes in and torches the economic basis of the federal government, gutting its ability to audit the wealthy or effectively regulate white collar crime. He also quietly deregulates broadcast media leading to a massive consolidation throughout the 90's and oughts. Clinton, the centrist he was, let critical economic safeguards lapse. The gaslighting begins in earnest with Newt Gingrich leading. Then the world changed and a document written at least as far back as the 80s but never successfully adopted was renamed "The Patriot Act" and rammed through on an "emergency" basis and which laid the groundwork for the erosion of civil rights. "Free speech zones" enters the American lexicon, anywhere within 100 miles of the US international border is now subject to searches without a warrant. All the while media consolidation makes it possible for organization to push a fantastical right-wing agenda. The Overton window slides to the right. "Terrorism" becomes not just household but daily word. People became comfortable with the military, they were everywhere and in everything. And then the internet exploded in popularity and network connections and the meme wars began.
The battle was lost because only one group understood the battle was occurring.
We didn't start the fire.
Is it the cheat code to avoid ICE and IRS combined?
Didn’t they round up and handcuff a bunch of South Koreans who were legally allowed to work in the US?
It’s really worth reading the South Korean perspective on the whole fiasco:
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_edit...
Yeah it’s going to pretty badly screw up S Korean investment in US manufacturing. A pretty big own goal.
Also, what dumbass is gonna drop a million on this?
Literally the CIO of a $20b/year ARR company said to me: “I was gonna send my kids to school in the US. Now? Never in a million years. Even I won’t set foot there.“
You can’t win in the global economy AND nativist white supremacist politics at the same time.
whois shows that the domain trumpcard.gov was created about 6 months ago. This is not something they just invented yesterday.
He's been talking about doing it since he was inaugurated.
$1 million
Doesn't even come with a Disney fast pass or NFL redzone.
Pass.
Why does it call it a donation and not a fee? Does it go to the trump organization ?
Also is this a replacement for the green card?
This is good. The central claim here is: if you can afford to pay $1 million, then you are almost certainly going to be a net benefit to our society.
That's a far better and more meritocratic vetting process than some lotto visa with a 10 year backlog.
> if you can afford to pay $1 million, then you are almost certainly going to be a net benefit
Have a look at the outcomes in other countries that do this.
There's usually so many loopholes that any economic benefits just don't materialise.
Specifically govts usually specify investment, but then the applicants just buy assets or property that doesn't actually help the recipient country.
NZ gave a passport to Peter Thiel. I can only hope our government introduces a taxation law specific to him!
Citizenship by investment revenue was 20% of St Kitts’ GDP in 2023. Look at the Henley & Partners website - pretty much every developed country (much of EU, Singapore, Switzerland, many Asian countries) offer at least offer residency by investment. And they still offer it despite pressure from the EU to shut these programs down, so there must be some benefit to it.
These are usually designed for wealthy people. The benefits might only accrue to the wealthy in the target country. For example my government in New Zealand keeps talking about being able to sell land to foreigners if it's more than 2 million. That benefits people that own land worth 2 million. The theory is that it trickles down to benefit the majority, but I wouldn't bet that actually occurred.
The bar should not be investment, instead it should be how much is spent. That could also cover nomadic workers. So long as their expenses are bringing overseas income then everybody in the target country is likely to be advantaged.
Investment can benefit both parties (it doesn't have to be zero sum) but savvy investors don't give a shit whether there is any benefit to the country. Applicants naturally don't like to spend money without gain, yet the purpose of the golden visas should be to encourage applicants to spend money!!!
Or investors often just invest in static assets that just hold their wealth. That doesn't help the target country.
Just my opinion from looking at the schemes and wondering how I would get around the rules so that I had no dead weight expenses.
Another argument for why it's good: if you're rich, you can either pay lots of money to an immigration lawyer to make sure your visa gets approved, or you could cut out the middleman and pay the government directly. Why wouldn't they just cut out the middleman?
Since congress didn't authorize this how is it legal? If it's not authorized by congress and there's no rules about where the money goes, where does it go? How is it being tracked and where will the details be published? These are the questions answered by legislation. Here, it's a black hole into a pocket with no oversight.
Wealth = merit?
90% of the time, yes.
This is bad. Borders should be open.
Citizenship should not be devalued.
I don't believe participation in democratic society requires borders or citizenship.
It might do in Ukraine, or anywhere small with a big autocratic enemy.
So the son of some oligarch more worthy to immigrate than a poor but brilliant PhD?
Your edge cases don't refute my claim
You provided zero evidence for your claim that millionaires “are almost certainly going to be a net benefit to our society.”
Plenty of millionaires are sociopathic, corrupt, and power-hungry people. The millions may even be a testament to this fact.
I don't need to. Just look at your immediate surroundings and ask yourself "who are the millionaires responsible for these products I enjoy?". Every component in your phone, computer, the chair in which you sit, the building you are in, the clothes you wear, and the car you drive. As a rule, people get rich because they create things, not because they exploit others. That's how capitalism works and it does work
I have a feeling Trump has a lot of crooked buddies that can pay $1m and will get preferential treatment.
And if it’s a good idea, make it a law so it’s harder for future administrations to undo.
Why would getting a lot of millionaires to your country be better than getting a lot of hard working but poor people? Wouldn't it matter mostly how they got their money?
Because I am willing to bet that Donald Trump will be able to attract mostly crooked people who know how to game the system, not people who have amassed their fortunes by hard work.
Sorry, no. Malta and Portugal had similar programs. The people who came were rent seekers an oligarchs in their own countries. Portugal had a massive amount of Chinese, and not the kind who build an electric vehicle factory.
Trump of course is familiar with these circles, so it is no problem for him.
This isn't investment based citizenship (which yes, has loopholes because you can funnel the profits out of the country). You pay the government directly
How does stuff like this come about?
Graphic at imghost.online (jpeg)
What in the world
lol this still requires a chargeable visa. i imagine this won’t get so much traction then.
Yeah but that takes away from immigrants of those countries going through non-Trump-meme immigration paths?
the gold one, yeah. since it is an immigrant visa… but well situated applicants who want this done in a timely manner already have other options.
weird they dont accept $Trump coin for this. it should be the only accepted form of payment, in fact.
is that eagle head following the cursor? that's hilarious!
I’ll bid one no-trump.
Is it April already?
Where does the 'gift' end up?
More golden toilets.
Biden should have given the nukes to Mexico.
I like the font actually
Me too. Reminds me of the Apple Garamond family Apple used to use in the 90s, though I'm too sleepy by now to check if they're the same. No idea why they stopped using it, it's beautiful.
this is revolting. Sure he’s an autocrat, blah blah blah, but he’s just so tacky
It's not that people like Ghadaffi or Sadam were known for their good taste haha. Trump's affinity for dictator chic is not entirely out of step.
The signature on the Trumpcard looks familiar... haven't I seen that somewhere, recently?
Oh yeah, it was in the Epstein birthday book, bragging about secrets: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26086823-house-overs...
Is this real?
If this was satire it would be too difficult to believe.
Idiocracy was the good timeline. Where are you President Comancho? He at least knew when to let the smartest person in the room talk and had the best interest of his country at heart.
Is the $1m / $5m going to the government or to Trump himself / his campaign / family business?
agasp
Maybe it’s a good idea. Maybe it’s not.
But the real issue is nobody had a policy debate about this in a legislative process. There’s no permanent law. It’s just Trump making stuff up.
Congress makes laws. Executive implements them. Let’s get back to that please.
Then it will last past this random-policy-of-the-week administration.
I'll wait for the Trump Diamond Card
The use of ´gift’ is extremely weird. I wanted to check what that was about, but there is no link to anything describing this in legalese.
The website is exactly like a startup landing page that hasn’t built anything but wants to check engagement before proceeding. It’s only missing fake testimonies and clients.
I am surprised though that they didn’t make it a requirement to pay in TrumpCoin.
The design is so ridiculous, I could see these cards being used as collectibles by douchey crypto bros.
Trump foreign dictator card.
What The Actual Fuck
This is a great idea, will attract wealthy people to live in the US.
Maybe it’s a great idea. But we make changes like this through laws. Not imperial fiat from dear leader.
Who exactly is that good for?
Trump.
This is hilarious. He's just trolling at this point, isn't he.
The US has one of the largest militaries in the world and has nearly 75 year of experience in force projection around the world. No one is escaping what happens. It's just that he's turned the beast on it s people first. When it's done gorging itself on "traitors" it'll turn to empire building soon enough. Greed cannot be satisfied.
So a genuine question here regarding the platinum card, as it applies to non-US income for 270 days:
If a corporation decided to apply for this, using a foreign subsidiary that holds US income from abroad—- could that corporation claim personhood and theoretically bring that income into the US tax free? Alternatively, could they funnel funds through a foreign born person to bypass paying taxes on that income?